Duchman Family Winery was formerly known as Mandola.

Driftwood, Texas—Texas' Mandola Estate Winery has been re-launched as the Duchman Family Winery. Drs. Lisa and Stan Duchman and Trina and Damian Mandola, co-founded Mandola Winery in 2004, but the partners have parted ways and the Duchmans now are sole proprietors of the estate, which produces some 10,000 cases per year. Winemakers Dave Reilly and Mark Penna, who have been making wine there since the first vintage, are staying on.

Located near Austin in Texas Hill Country, the winery sources the majority of its fruit from the Texas High Plains AVA where cooler temperatures, more suitable for Italian winegrape varieties, prevail. The winery continues to experiment with a wide variety of grapes, and remains committed to its original goal of producing wine in central Texas using exclusively Texas-grown fruit.

The Mandolas still own the Trattoria Lisina restaurant adjacent to the winery. Italian restaurants around the state, theoretically a choice market for a Texas-Tuscan label, may have been hesitant to buy wines bearing the name of a famous competitor. The Mandolas sold their interest to their long-time partners, allowing the Duchmans to rename the bottles and winery.

Online registry for homeless grapes

A re-vamped Texas Wine Grape Registry is providing an improved resource for Texas growers and winemakers. Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) wine marketing coordinator Bobby Champion said the online registry is authorized by the state’s agriculture code and is hosted and maintained by his office. "It's really a 'grape eBay'," he told Wines & Vines.

Mike Sipowicz, Texas AgriLife Extension Service enology specialist, partnered with Champion and the TDA. “The registry provides a venue in which people in the viticulture industry may find those interested in their products whom they otherwise may never have known about,” he commented. "The registry will help provide a backstop for winegrape producers during times when production exceeds demand."

The registry has been in place since 2006, but Texas's erratic harvests haven't allowed the program to fully launch. With 2010 expected to be one of the Texas's best vintages, both in quality and quantity, this is set to change. "We beat the spring frost and haven't heard of any damaging hails in the High Plains," Champion said. "We'll have a clearer idea of production levels in October."

Launched in June, the updated site is pdf/Word-based and posted daily. "We've seen a couple of transactions take place already," Champion said. Listing posters are responsible for the accuracy of their posted content. View the registry at: http://www.gotexanwine.org/wineriesandgrapegrowers/resources/texasregistry.html.

Staff change at foundation

Rebecca Robinson, executive director of The Wine & Food Foundation of Texas (WFFT) since spring 2003, tendered her resignation effective Sept. 30. Robinson is leaving to pursue her acting career, and will continue providing freelance in-house PR writing. A replacement has yet to be named.

WFFT was created in 1997 by builder/developer Larry Peel of the Texas Hill Country Wine & Food Festival, itself organized 25 years, with support from industry insiders including Susan Auler of 45,000-case Fall Creek Vineyards and Leon Cikota of Republic-National Distributing Company. WFFT is a statewide membership organization providing educational programs and eventsm and is one of the only non-profits in the U.S. focusing upon both the culinary and viticultural arts.